Research on long-chain alkanol etherified melamine-formaldehyde resin MicroPCMs for energy storage.

Aiming at the characteristics of melamine-formadehyde resin with poor toughness and high brittleness owing to its unique structure of trizine ring, long-chain alkanol etherified melamine-formaldehyde prepolymer was selected as shell material to synthesize MicroPCMs. The study mainly explored the effect of etherification and relevant influencing factors in the etherification process on performance of microcapsules. Through a series of characterization, the alkyl chain of dodecanol can be grafted into the methylolated melamine-formaldehyde prepolymer via etherification, contributing to enhancing the adsorption of core material and encapsulation effect of microcapsules. The optimal molar ratio of melamine, formaldehyde and n-dodecanol was 1:7:2 in etherification process. N-dodecanol-etherified melamine-formaldehyde prepolymer was synthesized via one-step method as shell material for encapsulation n-dodecanol to obtain MicroPCMs4-2. The MicroPCMs4-2 finally obtained presented complete microstructure, uniform particle size distribution, well dispersibility and satisfactory thermal energy storage performance with high enthalpy value (△H m = 166.1 J/g, △H c = 160.2 J/g) and effective loading (72.2%) for potential applications to thermal-regulating textiles and energy storage fibers. Image 1 • Long-chain alkanol successfully etherified MF resin via one-step method. • Etherification contributed to improve the encapsulation efficiency of microcapsules. • The long-chain alkanol for etherification can be consistent with core materials. • MicroPCMs4-2 had perfect energy storage performance and mechanical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]